AMHERST — Mitchell G. Etess, CEO of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, on Wednesday contrasted his company's “rural” concept for a $600 million casino in Palmer with competing proposals for sites in Springfield and West Springfield.

After all, he said, the casinos in Connecticut, like Foxwoods and his company's Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, are not in urban downtowns.

“That's the type of facility that people like to go to,” Etess said Wednesday at a luncheon sponsored by the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce. “It's what people are used to and what has been successful in this region.

By building in Palmer, Etess said, Mohegan Sun has a better chance at improving the economy of the entire region.

“Not just to work on fixing things in a concentrated urban area,” Etess said.

His speech to about 100 chamber members gathered at the Lord Jeffery Inn here came just one day after the state's deadline for gaming applications and for the nonrefundable $400 application fee. The proposed project is one of 11 casino proposals that have paid their non-refundable $400,000 fee to the state.

MGM Resorts in Springfield, Penn National Gaming, also in Springfield, and Hard Rock International at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield are the others competing for the lone resort casino license in Western Massachusetts. Paper City Development, which is considering sites in Holyoke and Chicopee, has appealed to the state for an extension of the filing deadline.

Etess said he always knew he'd have competition for the lone Western Massachusetts casino license.

He said Mohegan's experience in the New England casino market and its site on 152 acres located right on Exit 8 in Palmer make Mohegan the best choice.

“You get off the highway and we are right across the street,” Etess said. “We know we can win this.”

But Palmer officials were questioning whether the project would move forward. Mohegan didn't pay its $400,000 until the deadline was nearly here. While the Mohegan Sun project has been talked about for years, The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority was one of the last local applicants to pay the $400,000. The tribal organization partnered with New York City-based Brigade Capital management.

Etess said, “We didn't see any advantage in paying the fee and making the application any quicker.”

The Mohegan Palmer site is 20 miles, or about a half-hour drive, from Amherst. Many chamber members sounded skeptical Wednesday about Mohegan's impact on downtown business and the spectre of a spike in problem gamblers. One attendee asked about college students and problem gambling.

Etess said Mohegan's facilites in Pennsylvania and Connecticut card underage gamblers and allow problem gambles to self-exclude. The minimum age for gambling in Massachusetts casinos will be 21.

He also gave a spirited defense of his company’s rural casino model contrasted with the Penn National and MGM proposals in Springfield.

“We believe the rural casino model is what is attractive to people,” he said. “That's what people are used to.”

Amherst Town Manager John Musante said leaders here are still mulling whether to go for mitigation money in the casino process.

“There will be impacts,” he said. “All the basics when it comes to traffic and other things. Also, as manager of a college town I'm concerned about problem gambling and its impact on young people.”

Musante said he doesn't yet know how differently he feels about those impacts whether the casino is in Palmer or Springfield or West Springfield.

Tony Maroulis, executive director of the Amherst Chamber, said a casino might cut into trade show and entertainment business at the Mullins Center on the University of Massachusetts campus.

Etess said there are no plans for a big entertainment venue at Mohegan Sun Palmer.

Etess said local businesses, like restaurants, might lose a few customers to a casino. But that business is more than made up by money spent by casino employees who now have jobs.

Maroulis said he hopes to have the other potential casino operators in to talk as well.